Mao Zedong Quotes

#1. Don't wait untill problems pile up and cause a lot of trouble before trying to solve them. Leaders must march ahead the movement, not lag behind it.

Mao Zedong

#2. If we have a correct theory but merely prate about it, pigeonhole it and do not put it into practice, then that theory, however good, is of no significance.

Mao Zedong

#3. Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.

Mao Zedong

#4. Conditions are changing all the time, and to adapt one's thinking to the new conditions, one must study. Even those who have a better grasp of Marxism and are comparatively firm in their proletarian stand have to go on studying, have to absorb what is new and study new problems.

Mao Zedong

#5. What is common to both, however, is the accumulation of many minor victories to make a major victory.

Mao Zedong

#6. Our attitude towards ourselves should be 'to be satiable in learning' and towards others 'to be tireless in teaching.

Mao Zedong

#7. The first law of war is to preserve ourselves and destroy the enemy.

Mao Zedong

#8. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution.

Mao Zedong

#9. Investigation may be likened to the long months of pregnancy, and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it.

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#10. Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts.

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#11. No political party can possibly lead a great revolutionary movement to victory unless it possesses revolutionary theory and knowledge of history and has a profound grasp of the practical movement.

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#12. In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.

Mao Zedong

#13. There is in guerilla warfare no such thing as a decisive battle.

Mao Zedong

#14. In our international relations, we Chinese people should get rid of great-power chauvinism resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely.

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#15. Revolutions and revolutionary wars are inevitable in class society, and without them it is impossible to accomplish any leap in social development and to overthrow the reactionary ruling classes and therefore impossible for the people to win political power.

Mao Zedong

#16. Be resolute, fear no sacrifice, and surmount every difficulty to win victory.

Mao Zedong

#17. Disaster and chaos are always good

Mao Zedong

#18. Maybe you're afraid of sinking. Don't think about it. If you don't think about it, you won't sink. If you do, you will.

Mao Zedong

#19. Men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in production.

Mao Zedong

#20. On all basic points our policies have proved correct from the very beginning.

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#21. When we look at thing, we must examine its essence and treat its appearance merely as an usher at the threshold, we must, once we cross the threshold, grasp the essence of the thing.

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#22. In general, any form of exercise, if pursued continuously, will help train us in perseverance. Long-distance running is particularly good training in perseverance.

Mao Zedong

#23. People say that poverty is bad, but in fact poverty is good. The poorer people are, the more revolutionary they are. It is dreadful to imagine a time when everyone will be rich ... From a surplus of calories people will have two heads and four legs.

Mao Zedong

#24. Hence, as long as China is divided among the imperialist powers, the various cliques of warlords cannot under any circumstances come to terms, and whatever compromises they may reach will only be temporary.

Mao Zedong

#25. are for peace. But so long as U.S. imperialism refuses to give up its arrogant and unreasonable demands and its scheme to extend aggression, the only course for the Chinese people is to remain determined to go on fighting side by side with the Korean people. Not

Mao Zedong

#26. To Be Attacked by the Enemy Is Not a Bad Thing but a Good Thing,

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#27. When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.

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#28. Communists should be the most farsighted, the most self-sacrificing, the most resolute, and the least prejudiced in sizing up situations, and should rely on the majority of the masses and win their support.

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#29. Civilize the mind but make savage the body.

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#30. A Communist must never be opinionated or domineering, thinking that he is good in everything while others are good in nothing; he must never shut himself up in his little room, or brag and boast and lord it over others.

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#31. People like me sound like a lot of big cannons.

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#32. In addition to the leadership of the Party, a decisive factor is our population of 600 million. More people mean a greater ferment of ideas, more enthusiasm and more energy. Never before have the masses of the people been so inspired, so militant and so daring as at present.

Mao Zedong

#33. Just because we have won victory, we must never relax our vigilance against the frenzied plots for revenge by the imperialists and their running dogs. Whoever relaxes vigilance will disarm himself politically and land himself in a passive position.

Mao Zedong

#34. Our country and all the other socialist countries want peace; so do the peoples of all the countries of the world. The only ones who crave war and do not want peace are certain monopoly capitalist groups in a handful of imperialist countries that depend on aggression for their profits.

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#35. The cardinal responsibility of leadership is to identify the dominant contradiction at each point of the historical process and to work out a central line to resolve it.

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#36. The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution. This Marxist-Leninist principle of revolution holds well universally, for China and for all other countries.

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#37. The commanders and fighters of the entire Chinese People's Liberation Army absolutely must not relax in the least their will to fight; any thinking that relaxes the will to fight and belittles the enemy is wrong.

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#38. What is work? Work is struggle. There are difficulties and problems in those places for us to overcome and solve. We go there to work and struggle to overcome these difficulties. A good comrade is one who is more eager to go where the difficulties are greater.

Mao Zedong

#39. The socialist system will eventually replace the capitalist system; this is an objective law independent of man's will. However much the reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history, eventually revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph.

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#40. In a suitable temperature, an egg becomes a chicken, and there are no chickens born of stones.

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#41. Be pupils of the masses as well as their teachers.

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#42. The attitude of Communists towards any person who has made mistakes in his work should be one of persuasion in order to help him change and start afresh and not one of exclusion, unless he is incorrigible.

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#43. Today the whole world depends on communism for its salvation, and China is no exception.

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#44. Not just in China, but everywhere in the world without exception, one either leans to the side of imperialism or the side of socialism. Neutrality is mere camouflage; a third road does not exist.

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#45. We must thoroughly clear away all ideas among our cadres of winning easy victories through good luck, without hard and bitter struggle, without sweat and blood.

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#46. Learn from the masses, and then teach them.

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#47. We should support whatever the enemy opposes and oppose whatever the enemy supports

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#48. We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously. We must not pretend to know when we do not know.

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#49. We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.

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#50. finally defeat Japanese imperialism only through the cumulative effect of many offensive campaigns and battles in both regular and guerrilla warfare,

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#51. The spark from a tiny star can ignite the plains.

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#52. Without a People's army, the people have nothing.

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#53. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party.

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#54. The arrow of Marxist-Leninism must be used to hit the target of the Chinese Revolution.

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#55. If there were no contradictions and no struggle, there would be no world, no process, no life, and there would be nothing at all.

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#56. After the enemies with guns have been wiped out, there will still be enemies without guns; they are bound to struggle desperately against us, and we must never regard these enemies lightly. If we do nor now raise and understand the problem in this way, we shall commit the gravest mistakes.

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#57. It is mainly because of the unorganized state of the Chinese masses that Japan dares to bully us.

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#58. New things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow. It is sheer fantasy to imagine that the cause of socialism is all plain sailing and easy success, without difficulties and setbacks or the exertion of tremendous efforts.

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#59. In literary and art criticism there are two criteria, the political and the artistic.

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#60. The revolutionary war is a war of the masses; it can be waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them.

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#61. The question is not whether or not there should be a cult of the individual, but rather whether or not the individual concerned represents the truth, if he does then he should be worshiped.

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#62. All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.

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#63. The young people are the most active and vital force in society. They are the most eager to learn and the least conservative in their thinking. This is especially so in the era of socialism.

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#64. The contest of strength is not only a contest of military and economic power, but also a contest of human power and morale. Military and economic power is necessarily wielded by people.

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#65. The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. Young people, full of vigour and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning. Our hope is placed on you ... The world belongs to you. China's future belongs to you.

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#66. People who try to commit suicide
don't attempt to save them! ... China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people.

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#67. or does not study how to run meetings successfully.

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#68. When the enemy advances, withdraw; when he stops, harass; when he tires, strike; when he retreats, pursue.

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#69. The differences between friends cannot but reinforce their friendship.

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#70. Once all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible.

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#71. War, this monster of mutual slaughter among men, will be finally eliminated by the progress of human society, and in the not too distant future too.

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#72. Power comes from the muzzle of a gun, those that have the guns have the power, those that have the power dictate what type of government their shall be.

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#73. Many who have read Marxist books have become renegades from the revolution, whereas illiterate workers often grasp Marxism very well.

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#74. When guerillas engage a stronger enemy, they withdraw when he advances, harass him when he stops, strike him when he is weary, pursue him when he withdraws.

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#75. the imperialist prophets are pinning their hopes of "peaceful evolution" on the third or fourth generation of the Chinese Party.

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#76. An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.

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#77. Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend.

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#78. New things have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow.

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#79. Revolution is not a dinner party, not an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly, and modestly.

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#80. We Communists are like seeds and the people are like the soil. Wherever we go, we must unite with the people, take root and blossom among them.

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#81. Unquestionably, victory or defeat in war is determined mainly by the military, political, economic and natural conditions on both sides. But not by these alone. It is also determined by each side's subjective ability in directing the war.

Mao Zedong

#82. A strategic plan based on the over-all situation of both belligerents is ... more stable, but it too is applicable only in a given strategic stage and has to be changed when the war moves towards a new stage ... [Conversely, tactical plans may] ... have to be changed several times a day.

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#83. What do you think has been the effect of the French revolution? It is too early to tell.

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#84. Ours is a people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance.

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#85. Revolution is a drama of passion. We did not win the people over by appealing to reason but by developing hope, trust, fraternity.

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#86. The weeds of socialism are better than the crops of capitalism.

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#87. Every Communist working in the mass movements should be a friend of the masses and not a boss over them, an indefatigable teacher and not a bureaucratic politician.

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#88. The enemy will not perish of himself. Neither will the Chinese reactionaries nor the aggressive forces of U.S. imperialism in China step down from the stage of history of their own accord.

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#89. Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically.

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#90. A potential revolutionary situation exists in any country where the government consistently fails in its obligation to ensure at least a minimally decent standard of life for the great majority of its citizens.

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#91. It is right to rebel against reactionaries.

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#92. Communists must always go into the why's and wherefore's of anything, use their own heads and carefully think over whether or not it corresponds to reality and is really well founded; on no account should they follow blindly and encourage slavishness.

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#93. Swollen in head, weak in legs, sharp in tongue but empty in belly.

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#94. Learn to swim. It is a sport all the peasants can play.

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#95. There is a serious tendency towards capitalism among the well-to-do peasants. This tendency will become rampant if we in the slightest way neglect political work among the peasants during the co-operative movement and for a very long period after.

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#96. All the experience the Chinese people have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people's democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.

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#97. We must have faith, first, that the peasant masses are ready to advance step by step along the road of socialism under the leadership of the Party, and second, that the Party is capable of leading the peasants along this road. These two points are the essence of the matter, the main current.

Mao Zedong

#98. Don't make a fuss about a world war. At most, people die ... Half the population wiped out - this happened quite a few times in Chinese history ... It's best if half the population is left, next best one-third ...

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#99. The most important thing is to be strong. With strength, one can conquer others, and to conquer others gives one virtue.

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#100. Evil does not exist in guerrilla warfare but only in the unorganized and undisciplined activities that are anarchism,

Mao Zedong